


My Father Has No Son (And Other Comforting Lies)

by misura



Category: Traveler
Genre: Community: smallfandomfest, M/M, Time Skips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-15
Updated: 2013-06-15
Packaged: 2017-12-21 20:44:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/904720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Or: five times Will pretended he didn't care, and one time Tyler called his bluff.</p>
            </blockquote>





	My Father Has No Son (And Other Comforting Lies)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Enigel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Enigel/gifts).



> prompt: _Will/Tyler, trust and betrayal_

"I just want to know one thing," Tyler says, and his voice is thick. "One goddamn real answer."

"What?" Will asks.

"The Cubs," Tyler says, and then, when Will just stares at him dumbly (because, well, _seriously?_ ): "Look, just answer the question. Are you, or aren't you?"

 

This is the truth about Will Traveler:

half an hour after meeting Tyler Fog, give or take a few minutes, he's hacked into Tyler's bank account. It's background (he tells himself), basic research. If Tyler's dad's really cut him off, Will needs to know. If Tyler's the type to tell fake sob stories to his roomies just to get their sympathy, Will needs to know.

Jay's pretty much like his file's described him. Rational approach, combined with strong leanings towards sentimentalism and a tendency to want to solve other people's problems. Becoming a lawyer's either going to break him, or get him to wisen up to the state of the human race.

Tyler, on the other hand - well. There's not a whole lot of rational or sentimental about Tyler.

He either likes you, or he doesn't. He trusts you, or he doesn't. He'll let you drive his car whenever you need a (fancier than usual) ride, or he won't. There's not a lot of middle ground with Tyler, not a lot of room for negotiation, for working your way inside. You're either in already, or you're out in the cold.

Alex might have looked at Tyler Fog like a challenge.

Will just thinks he's going to be a pain in the ass.

 

The shooting of Carlton Fog is big news, breaking news - something fresh and novel, with possible connections to a story that's been on the front page for close to week and plenty of angles.

Will thinks now is not a good time to draw comparisons, to say what he's thinking, every time they shows the clip on the news, of Fog being led outside, cuffed, surrounded by uniforms.

_"That could have been you."_

Will isn't bothered by the idea of Jay and Tyler getting killed, because he knows that he'd die before he'd let that happen, and one of the first things he's taught himself is not to worry about things that will happen after you're dead. ( _'That's what makes you such a good soldier,'_ Joseph told him, once. _'Determination.'_ And Will knew, even then, that wasn't it at all. He was never a determined sort of guy, just a slightly naive one who'd been trained to be a cold-blooded murderer.)

Tyler leaves the room after the sixth time, or maybe it's the seventh.

Jay half-rises, more emotion on his face than Will has seen on Tyler's so far about the whole thing - and Will knows, just knows, that Jay could go out there and get Tyler to come back in again, looking calmer and capable of dealing with the whole thing.

It's hard not to like Jay, most of the time, but every now and then, Will makes the effort.

"I'll go," he says, and because Jay is Jay, he doesn't object or say that it's a bad idea.

 

This is the truth about Will Traveler:

when Tyler gets into a fight with someone twice his size, Will doesn't step in.

He's not there for the start of it; he doesn't know what started it, even if he can make a fair guess as to the who, because a Tyler with a few drinks in him is a Tyler who says out loud what he thinks. There may very well be a girl involved, because Tyler likes to keep up appearances.

(Or no, actually, Tyler _hates_ to keep up appearances. He does it anyway, though, because he feels he'd be letting down his dad if he wouldn't. And Will could tell him not to bother, that it's a lost cause anyway, but he tells himself it's more entertaining not to, that Tyler's better off not knowing.)

Tyler shoves, and the other guy pushes. (Will doesn't know the guy's name, so he's probably nobody.)

He glimpses Kim somewhere among the on-lookers, frowning, but no Jay. Not yet.

"You want a fight, huh, big guy?" Tyler raises his fists in the proper way of someone who thinks watching a lot of TV can teach you how to be a martial arts expert. "Come on. Try me."

The crowd murmurs, the way crowds do. Will wishes they would get on with it, before Jay gets here and breaks the whole thing up. He tries to spot Kim, determine if she's run off to find Jay.

Someone cheers, and Will looks back to where Tyler's tossed a glass of beer at his opponent. (It's not glass, so the damage is non-existent, and Will wonders just how aware Tyler was of that when he threw the thing, how in control Tyler is, during these sorts of things.)

"Hey!" Jay arrives, looking sober and concerned. "Hey. Break it up, you two." Jay probably does know the other guy's name. It doesn't quite explain why everyone always seems to listen to Jay when he tells them to lay off of Tyler. "C'mon, Tyler. Garrett."

Tyler looks pissed and Garrett looks resigned and Kim looks at Will like he's a very poor friend.

Will looks back at Kim and pretends to care for a few seconds (regretful and helpless), before he notices Garrett making his way to the exit, which is definitely his cue.

Just because he's supposed to keep a low profile, that doesn't mean he can't beat people up someplace nice and quiet.

 

"So," Tyler says. "You still going to sail off into the sunset now that it's all over?"

If this were a movie, Will should be dropping the sequel hook here. He'd say: _"Are you sure it's over?"_ or even, if one of the villains had gotten away: _"It's not over yet."_

This is not a movie, though. "I don't know."

Somewhere back in Queens, Jay and Kim are looking at furniture and drapes.

"Huh." Tyler looks up at the boat. It's very new, and not Will's. The way most of the things his life is made of aren't, up to and including his name.

"You want to come along?" Will asks. Two years seems a very short time to get used to not being lonely, but somehow, it seems to have happened.

"Maybe you hadn't heard, but I've inherited this huge fortune," Tyler says. "Got people depending on me to run the family business, decide which Third World dictator to sell arms to on the sly, that sort of thing."

Will nods, once. "I understand."

"Yeah," Tyler says, swinging himself on board. "So. Time to be casting off, I think."


End file.
